by Steven R. Rochlin

  Moth Group - Hi-Fi Accessories Club Mark Harris works very hard for the Hi-Fi News & Record Review readers to insure those who order from the magazine get their bits straight away. From the HFN&RR Vinyl Test Record to valves and books. This month they are featuring the Zerostat 3 antistatic gun to reduce static electricity on vinyl records. While at the show there were some who stocked up on a new set of valves while others replaced their worn out vinyl cleaning brush with a nice new one. i am sure Mark would gladly assist you in whatever bits you desire. And if you are like me, the more toys the better!

JPW's Millennium range now feature new wood speaker cabinets in fine-looking wood finishes. These new speakers use all newly designed drive units in conjunction with better bracing within the internal cabinet. This better bracing helps to greatly reduce cabinet resonances which can interfere with the reproduced music.

Well known for their digital technology, Meridian is showing the new 568 surround sound system with the 568 processor and 562V.2 switcher. Ease of use through PC setup assist in making the unit simpler to initially set to your personal needs.

Not quite new, the KEF Maidstone is KEF's statement product using their dual-concentric 160mm mid with centrally mounted 25mm fabric tweeter. A large 250mm lower-mid driver and 380mm bass/sub driver round out this 4-way high-quality unit. Each of the three main speaker units are housed in highly braced MDF cabinets that are beautifully finished as seen to the right. The utmost attention to every detail has been paid such as gold-plated PCB tracks using in the crossover and OFC copper wire used throughout. High-frequency output has three adjustments consisting of -1db, 0db and +1db settings. The Uni-Q driver used for the mids/highs is now in KEF's 5^th generation offering great vertical and horizontal dispersion. The acoustic centre of each speaker is time aligned for the maximum of total musical performance

New from Kuzma is their ultimate turntable called the Kuzma Stabi XL turntable with XL PSU power supply. How does one begin to describe this amazing technical and engineering marvel? Well, i will give it a go. The Kuzma Stabi XL turntable is their best ever final "statement" piece with only 25 being made for the world-wide market. It uses an 80 kg. twin synchronous motor belt that is driven with a 50 watt per channel, two channel, spilt phase "Class A" power supply. The finish is highly polished brass with extremely tight tolerances being made between all mechanical pieces.

As you can see on the Kuzma Stabi XL to the right, a unique VTA adjustment lever on the far right of the tonearm pillar allows for precise adjustment between normal thickness vinyl and a 3mm height adjustment for that of the 180 gram variety. The digital readout on the lower part of the tonearm pillar can digitally display the absolute adjustment. The entire Stabi XL setup is truly a masterpiece! (As i begin to sing) If i was a rich man...

Also new from Kuzma is their more cost effective Stabi S turntable and Stogi S tonearm. Like the XL, the main structure consists of solid highly polished brass to give high structure rigidity while various non-metallic rings are used to reduce acoustic resonances. The Stogi S tonearm is of the unipivit design with the main section being a solid brass/aluminum combination. Specially shaped headshell and internal dampening in the tonearm tube insure minimal acoustic feedback from the tonearm. This is further enhanced by using silicone fluid dampening. A special Stabi S isolation platform is also available to complete this special offering from Kuzma.

Do you want to shag baby? Yeah baby yeah! Within the Monitor Audio room were posters of, what else, Austin Powers with a few added touches like Lava lamps, flower power stickers and much more! Strangely, the lamps seemed quite phallic baby. Shagadellic! Monitor Audio's new baby Boomers and Bronze series speakers were out in full force showing that great sound can be achieved without the need for super-high priced super large speakers. Hmm, so maybe size doesn't matter after all. Oh behave!

Have you seen the future? One visit to the ProAc room and you will see their all new triangle-shaped Future One and Future Two loudspeakers. Claimed by ProAc to the "the most radical high-end loudspeaker designs to be developed in years", the new cabinet shape and structure is claimed to offer more natural and neutral sound. The Future One is a three-way design using a ribbon tweeter, 5" polypropylene midrange and 7" ProAc carbon fibre woofer. The Future Two is a four-way and uses the same ribbon tweeter, yet add to it a 6.5" special glass fibre weave cone which is specially coated and two 7" ProAc carbon fibre bass drivers. Sensitivity is claimed as 87dB/W/m for the One and 88dB/W/m for the Two with an 8 ohms nominal impedance for both models.

Representing the Naim Music label is Anna Tooth who always kindly shares with me all the great new music they produce. New from Union is the "State of the Union" CD with Hobgood, Torff and Wertico (naimcd038). While not quite new, Acoustic Mania "Talking Hands" (naimcd020) with Antonio Forcione and Neil Stacey is also available. i mention this because this duet will be performing live four times during the Hi-Fi News & Record Review show (sat/sun 1:30 and 3:30). See you there!

Wolfgang Thoerner, owner and chief designer of WBT, was showing his new Power Bridge which makes contact between bi-wiring terminals. Unlike the low quality shoddy bits most manufactures supply with their bi-wireable speakers, the WBT unit is made from high quality pure copper which is then gold-plated. Alternatively, for ultra-fi quality, a silver version which is Rhodium-plated is also available. 

Both units also feature an anti-vibration factor (blue elastomer as seen to the right). This reduces the consequences which vibrations can cause such as those distortions which occur due to vibrational effects.

Quad II valve amplifier. What more can i say.. and where do we go from here? A new valve amplifier for the new millennium is the "uprated" Quad II-forty. With an output of 40 watts, this new unit is sure to be a big hit and backordered the moment it becomes available. If you like what you see here, you best contact your local Quad dealer now as supplies will be limited and in great demand indeed. The line forms to the left.

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